Letter From the Committee of Organisations Abroad to the Sections of the R.S.D.L.P.

Written:Written February-March 1916Published:First published in 1937 inLenin Miscellany XXX.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      UNKNOWN,[19xx],

      Moscow,Volume 22,

      pages157-160.Translated:UNKNOWN UNKNOWNTranscription\Markup:Charles FarrellPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      2000

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearComrades,

Therecent No. 25 issue (thesecondto come out during
the war) ofGazeta
Robotnicza,[2]the
organ of theoppositionof the Polish Social-Democratic
Party, carries the resolutions of their conference (a conference
of the Editorial Board) adopted back inJune1915.

Theseresolutions clearly show thatas a body(we say
nothing of its members as individuals, some of whom are doing
extremely useful work in the German Social-Democratic press), the
Polish Social-Democrats areonce againvacillating in amostspineless manner.

There’snot a word againstKautskyism,not a word
about any determined and resolute struggle againstopportunism,as thesourceandbuttressof social-chauvinism!! This can be read in one way only: they
are prepared once again (as in Brussels, July 3-16,
=

1914[3]) “to play ball” with the Kautskyites.

Wequote the main (IV) resolution in full. Here it is:

GazetaRobotniczaP.S.D. (of the opposition) No. 25
(January 1916). “Resolutions of the Editorial Board conference
held on June 1-2, 1915.”

IV.The Attitude of the Social-DemocratsofPoland
andLithuania to the
R.S.D.L.P.[1]

“ThePolish revolutionary Social-Democrats regard the
Central Committee of the R.S.D. L.P, as a body consistingof
the most resolute revolutionary internationalist elements in Russia,
and, while leaving it to the regional organisation to
settle its organisational relations with. it in the future, will
give it political support and co-ordinate their activity with
it.

“Thecommon revolutionary stand of the Polish Social-Democrats
and the Central Committee on the main essential [wytycznych(definite?)] points of their policy makes it
incumbent on the Social-Democrats of Poland and
Lithuania tocontinuetaking a critical attitude
to its obvious tactical exaggerations [wybujatoşci(“wild” growth of corn, etc.)].

“Whilejustly desiring to emphasise the proletariat’s
unquestionably hostile attitude to tsarism’s plunderous policy,
the Central Committee puts forward the slogan ofRussia’s defeat,basing it on the especially reactionary
part tsarism has to play in Europe and the specific significance
of a Russian revolution; however, this brings the Central
Committee into contradiction withthemethod of
internationalism, which does not allow proletarian hopes and tasks
to be pinned on any definite outcome of the war, and even provides
the German social-patriots with arguments.

“Whilejustly noting the need for revolutionary action to build
a new international, while justly opposing every attempt to gloss
over the conflict, and piece together the broken old
international, the C.C., however, overrate the importance of
automatically fencing themselves off from all less resolute
elements which do not accept their standpointa priori,andforget[przeocta] that the
task of the revolutionarycamp[obozu] must not be to repulse these elements
but to draw them into the struggle against thefraud[szalbierstwem] of
social-patriotism, and topromotetheir radicalisation by
sharply criticising their ideological instability.

“Asfor the O.C. (R.S.D.L.P), theconference[narada] reaffirms that its main group, which is in
Russia, and also itsliterary representative[ekspozytura lileracka] take the social-patriotic
standpoint, and that its weak internationalist wing has neither
the strength northecourage to break with the
social-patriots, and that the O.C. Centre takes the pacifist
standpoint; the conference considers that the attitude of the
Social-Democrats of Poland and Lithuania tothe O.C. can
consist exclusively of criticism of its position, promoting
its disintegration [rozktadu] and separating
from the O.C.itsinternationalistelementsgrouped
aroundNashe Slovo,an organ which has done a great deal
to elaborate  [crysiallise] internationalist-revolutionary views
in the ranks of the R.S.D.L.P.

“Thesame applies, in particular, also to the Bund, which is a
part of the O.C., for its attitude is an even greater chaotic
mixture of social-patriotic and pacifist, Russophile and
Germanophile elements.”

ThePolish Social-Democrats say here that they wish to
“co-ordinate” their activity with the Central Committee.

Webelieve it to he our unquestionable duty to toll the Central
Committee this: title Central Committee must not andcannot“co-ordinate” their activity with the P.S,D.

Becausethe P.S.D. isvacillatingagain and again, for
the nth time (or playing a game, which is objectively the same
thing) on our Party’scardinalquestion. There is no
doubt that the key issue in the Russian Social-Democratic movement
today is that of thesplit.

Onthis point we are adamant, because theentireexperience of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia,
especially in the 1903-09 period, and even more between 1910 and
1914, and most of all in the years 1915 and 1916,has
servedto convinceus that unity with the O.C. (or
with the Chkheidze group, which is the same thing) isharmfulto the working-class movement, and,ensuresits subjugation to the bourgeoisie.

Thewar and
Gvozdyovism[4]have provided the final
proof.

Butit is on this chief, basic and fundamental issue that the
Polish Social-Democrats are againequivocating.

Theysaynot a wordabout the war having convinced
them of the need for a split and of tireerroneousnessof
their tactics at Brussels (July 3–16, 1914).

Onthe contrary, they have inserted in the resolution aphrasewhich looks as if it had been deliberately worded
to justify and do another “Brussels” desertion to the O.C. or
Chkheidze. Here it is:

“TheCentral Committee overrate the importance of automatically
fencing themselves off....”

Thatis the whole point. The rest is just rhetoric. If
the Central Committee “overrate” the need for a split, it is clear
that the P.S.D. are entitled today or tomorrow to voteagainfor another Brussels-Kautskyite “unity” resolution.

Itis the same old Tyszka
trick,[5]the old game
Between the C.C. and the O.C., the old eclectical (to put it
mildly) use of the pendulum position.

Wehave no objection at all toworking withthe
P.S.D., either in general, or in the Zimmerwald Left in
particular; nor do we defend everyfetterof our
resolutions; butwe are adamanton (1)
the split in Russia and (2) that there be no reconciliation
with Kautskyism in Europe. We consider it to be our duty to warn
all comrades that the Polish Social Democrats areunreliable,and to insist that the C.C. must not let itself he drawn once
again into a repetition of “Brussels” experiments, or trust the
authors of these experiments or participants in them.

Withcomradely greetings,C.O.A.

[1]TheGazeta Robotniczaresolution was translated by
N. K. Krupskaya, The words in bold-face type here are Lenin’s
additions and corrections to the translation from the
Polish.—Ed.

[2][PLACEHOLDER.]

[3][PLACEHOLDER.]

[4][PLACEHOLDER.]

[5][PLACEHOLDER.]